nuffnang

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Meanwhile, another strange thing happened at Lane Street. While people were busy talking about the sundal bolong and pocong, Siti had another matter which was more important to think about.

Siti was a new bride. She was the second wife to Zahid, which had another wife at the next village. That night, Siti waited for her husband to come home. It was going to be the night of her turn. Her husband must come back to her home tonight because he had promised her. In fact, Siti had cooked a lot of food to welcome her husband home.

After cooking, Siti had put on her best clothes and put some perfume on her body. She missed her husband very much. She only had three days in a week to spend with her husband because the other four days belonged to the first wife. It was not fair, but because she knew she was only the second wife, she accepted what she got and tried to be happy and content with it.

Even though Zahid was a lot more older than her, Siti still loved her husband. Zahid was around 65 years old at that time, while Siti was in her early 40's. Siti was an 'old maid', a title which was used by the neighborhood when a girl didn't get married when she reached 30's. Even though she had carried the title long enough, she was not an ugly woman nor a woman with ordinary face. When she was young, a lot of young men were attracted to her but because her parents were too selective, they were not aware that they were wasting their daughter's time. At last, Siti was getting older and she still was not married. Siti's parents were rich and they thought they wanted to keep their good name and status.

When Siti reached her 40's her parents regretted because they were being too choosy. So, when Zahid came to their house to propose Siti for a marriage, they accepted without thinking too much. Fortunately, Zahid was a good man and he tried to be fair to his wives as far as he could.Zahid's another wife was named Sara. She was a resident from the next village. Zahid and Sara were gifted with three children.

Siti had counted many times, and she was sure Zahid had already spent four nights with his first wife. And because of that, Siti knew Zahid would come home tonight. Furthermore, Zahid had never broken his promise if he had made it. However, Siti started to worry when the weather outside the house became darker but her husband was still not home as expected. In her heart, she started to think. Maybe Zahid had started to forget about her. Siti felt annoyed thinking about it, and she thought of doing something to her husband so that he would forget his first wife forever. Siti was not going to give way to Sara just like that. She had her rights on her husband too.

"I will entertain and treat my husband with love and affection. And I would cook only his favorite food whenever he is here with me. By doing this, I am sure he would forget Sara because Sara can never treat Zahid that well since she had three children to attend to," said Siti to herself, trying to calm herself down.

Siti loved Zahid and Zahid loved Siti too. Zahid was an ordinary man. He started his career as a food stall hawker. Because he was hardworking, eventually he had managed to put aside enough capital to open a mini market. Siti knew Sara was one of his regular customers and because they met almost every day when Sara went there to buy daily groceries, they fell in love and got married.

At first, Zahid's intention to marry Sara was not accepted by Sara's parents. They didn't like Zahid for reasons of the unknown. Zahid couldn't accept the rejection and he felt humiliated. He met one of his close friends, and his friend advised him to keep a 'hantu raya' in his effort to get Sara.

However, owning a 'hantu raya' was not easy. A lot of things must be followed thoroughly, and if one thing was forgotten it would bring a bad consequence to the owner.

"You will face bad omens if you can't control your own 'hantu raya'. This ghost is very loyal, yet you must make sure you never break any promises with anyone. The 'hantu raya' will represent you everywhere is needed and will never fail to do so. It would bring prosper to you, but if you don't manage him well, it will eat you up back.

At that time, Zahid was madly in love with Sara and didn't think long about the consequences. To him, he was willing to do anything as long as he could get Sara.

Because of that, the shaman whom Zahid went to showed him how to get the 'hantu raya'.

"You have to go into the nearby jungle. Make a path into the jungle using a piece of sword. You must make the path towards the east, and only begin when the sun is rising. You must stop as soon as your shadow shifted toward the west. At that time, change the destination of the path so that it is going to the west. Keep on making your path towards the west until the 'hantu raya' appears in front of you," said the shaman.

"Human beings are the greatest creation of God and ghosts are naturally afraid of us. But we have to know their weakness because ghosts like demons hate us very much and their mission is to turn us away from believing in God. When you know their weakness, it would be easy for you to control it," added the shaman.

Zahid could still remember the day he fought with the 'hantu raya'. It was already dark and Zahid was exhausted after making a long path in the jungle. He was resting when suddenly the wind blew so hard and a ten-feet-tall creature appeared in front of him. Zahid was afraid, but he threw away all his terror out of his body. He knew the creature was the 'hantu raya' based on the description given by the shaman.

Zahid knew he had no choice but to fight the 'hantu raya'. If he didn't fight, he would die in the hands of the ghost.

"Take this!" yelled Zahid and he cut the creature's hand with his sword. But the creature was not harmed nor scratched even a little bit. It laughed out loud and challenged Zahid to make a second attack.

Zahid cut again at the creature's neck but nothing happened. The 'hantu raya' was so tall and strong. He was immune to every weapon. Without having a second to think, Zahid felt the hantu raya caught his body and lifted him up in the air. Then he was thrown down to the earth. Zahid fell down with a huge pain. He felt as if his waist was going to break.

When the hantu raya grabbed him for the second time, Zahid took the opportunity to grab the hantu raya's testicles. He didn't let go. The hantu raya screamed out of pain and he rolled on the ground because of the unbearable pain.

Zahid was forced to follow the rhythm of the hantu raya. But Zahid never let go of the hantu raya's testicles. The situation continued for two hours. Finally, the hantu raya became very tired and too painful to continue on struggling.

"You win. Let me go," pleaded the hantu raya.

"I can let you go but on one condition," replied Zahid. He was very proud because at last he had managed to overpower the strength of the hantu raya.

"I will follow all of your conditions. Just let me go. I will never break my promise.""I will only let you go if you promise to be my servant for the rest of your life," urged Zahid with a fierce voice.

"I agree," replied the hantu raya in a very humble voice.

Immediately after the hantu raya said that, he disappeared from Zahid's view and left a cloud of smoke behind. A few seconds later, a thicker smoke appeared and when the smoke disappeared Zahid saw there was someone lying down on the ground. It was a body of a man.

Zahid came nearer to the man. He was shocked to see the face of the lying down man. The man's face looked exactly like Zahid's face. Zahid touched his own face and was very eager to know how he looked like at that time, but there was not a mirror available in the middle of the jungle.

"Did he exchange his face with mine?" asked Zahid to himself in complete horror. Zahid looked without a blink at the lying man on the ground in front of him. The man was beginning to wake up. He started moving his fingers and toes. Zahid felt afraid all of a sudden and was ready to attack the man. He held on to his sword as tight as he could.

The man did nothing harmful. He opened his eyes and sat up. He faced Zahid and looked straight into Zahid's pair of eyes."Who are you?" asked Zahid in fear, but trying very hard to conceal his true feelings."I am your servant, my master. Ask me everything, and I will obey you without any objections. But you must promise to feed me enough," said the man.

"Are you a human being or a ghost?" asked Zahid again.

"I am 'hantu raya'. I have changed my face so I can look the same as you. "

"What jobs can you do?" asked Zahid, feeling a thrill of excitement washing him down his spine.

"I am capable of doing everything. Just ask me to do it. I will do it."

Zahid was really convinced with what the hantu raya told him. Now he knew the man sitting in front of him was the 'hantu raya' which he wanted to keep. Excitedly, Zahid tried to test his new servant.

"I want to go home. Now take me home this instant," ordered Zahid.

Within a blink of the eye, Zahid was already at home. He felt a very strange and out of the world strangeness, but it was a very pleasant feeling. Zahid felt very glad and fortunate to own a very powerful ghost like the 'hantu raya'.

That night, Zahid was too excited and he forgot to eat nor drink anything. He only thought about how to get Sara in his hands. Sooner of later he would be able to marry Sara. He knew the hantu raya would do anything as he ordered, and if he commanded the hantu raya to bring Sara to him that night, he would. But because he was too tired, he was soon deeply asleep.